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Sunday, 22 September 2013

On Social Media and Importance of Loneliness

I have not written a casual blog for a long time now. But a
few things that I read/saw yesterday coupled with my current condition forced
me to get back on the blogging chair. The article in question was titled Diary,
by Rebecca Solnit (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n16/rebecca-solnit/diary)
and the video was an interview of Louis C.K (http://teamcoco.com/video/louis-ck-springsteen-cell-phone).
Both of these items said the same thing, but in different ways. Rebecca Solnit
wrote about how new technology makes us anxious and constantly-on-the-hooks.
She wrote,

“Another study found that students, when left to their own devices, are unable
to focus on homework for more than two minutes without turning to web surfing
or email. Adults in the workforce can make it to about 11 minutes.’

Nearly everyone I know feels that some quality of concentration they once
possessed has been destroyed. Reading books has become hard; the mind keeps
wanting to shift from whatever it is paying attention to pay attention to
something else. A restlessness has seized hold of many of us, a sense that we
should be doing something else, no matter what we are doing, or doing at least
two things at once, or going to check some other medium. It’s an anxiety about
keeping up, about not being left out or getting behind”.

I have felt this lack of concentration ever since I became active on twitter (almost
two years ago) and since then; facebook and twitter have become an addiction for
me. The first thing that I do on waking up daily, for the last many years, is
to check my Gmail inbox, Facebook and Twitter. At times, when I wake up during
the night, the same routine is repeated. I know that many of my friends and
contemporaries face the same issue, day in day out. I can’t read a book for
long, can’t focus on studies, can’t converse with someone without intermittent
glances towards the phone. I did not have an iphone till this year, and having
one has simply compounded the problem.

I remember being in Saudi Arabia two years ago, and due to my own stupidity, I
didn’t take my Smartphone there, thus I had to pay 10 Saudi Riyals per hour(I
can get internet on my phone for a whole month in Pakistan) at shady internet
cafes in Mecca and it felt so horrible at that time. I remember going to
Shandur,the highest polo ground in the world(located in North Western Pakistan)
and feeling helpless because there were no signals there and I couldn’t post my
facebook status or tweet about the marvelous surroundings. For me, ‘informing
others about the moment’ had become more important than the ‘ moment’ itself.(I
feel the same way about photo uploads. I think that these days, we are more
interested in taking pictures of places that actually enjoying those places
themselves. We capture the moments that we ourselves fail to live).

My first impulse after watching a great movie, or listening a great song, or
having a tasty meal, or arriving at a beautiful location, is to ‘broadcast’
those impulses via social media. I believe that I am not the only one afflicted
with this condition(the only thought that brings me any solace). The ‘anxiety’
of being always on the edge, of being always connected, is present around me. I
don’t know how it crept on me and when it took over control. I tried to use
twitter initially as a means to promote what I write and to keep informed. While
both these objectives were achieved, I also became involved in twitter
activism, primarily because of the doctors’ movement that I was a part of.
During a major strike last year, when most doctors at public hospitals had
resigned from work and didn’t show up at the hospitals for a week, I was busy
confronting people on twitter and facebook, all the time(I had little sleep
during that week, despite having nothing to do).

Now, I am supposed to study for my post-graduate exams but the lack of focus
and concentration has made it almost impossible for me to resume my studies
with the same fervor as two years ago. Despite being afflicted, I’m thankful at
the same time to social media, for introducing me to some wonderful people(whom
I met later, in “real life”). I gave up watching TV two years ago, because I can’t
stand the non-stop Monkey business that Pakistan’s news channels have to
present. I took refuge in Social Media to get away from the clutter and voila,
twitter is awash with the same clutter now. I even introduced some of my relatives
and friends to twitter, and they also noticed the addictive potential of
twitter.

Regarding Louis C.K. and his dislike for smartphones, I
agree wholeheartedly with him. Smartphones have deprived us from the feeling of
ever being lonely. As long as the phone is connected to either Cellular service
or Wi-Fi, we are not alone per se. And it’s not a good thing. As Louis C.K said
and I’ve read somewhere else, loneliness is not an essentially bad thing. We
can’t appreciate great art or music unless it is accompanied by the feeling of
genuine loneliness. As if Facebook and Twitter were not enough, smartphones
brought us Viber, Whatsapp, Kik and so on. All these services are there so that
we don’t feel “alone”. And all this in the age of individualism.!!

I don’t know how I can get rid of the addiction of checking my phone after
every five minutes, might I miss a “Like” on my latest Instagram photo, or a DM
from someone asking me to retweet their work, or a whatsapp group message saying
“Hi everyone”, or a missed call from some random number on Viber. In the days
gone by, it never happened. I remember being in boarding school in early 2000s
and the only two ways of communication with the outside world were; Letters and
a phone booth that was supposed to be used to 500 people. I still get letters,
but they are mostly cheques from the newspapers that I occasionally scribble
for. The feeling of getting a letter, the excitement, the joy, in the early
2000s, can’t be explained in words (despite the fact that only my parents sent
me any letters and nobody else).

At another boarding school, parents of around 80-100 people were supposed to
call between 8 or 9 am and 5 pm, on Sundays. So, whenever someone got a call,
his name was shouted by the person deputed to attend the call, until that person
arrived. The “high” of listening your name being shouted, was more than actually
talking to parents. The “high” of that shout, the joy of the received letter,
was due to an element of surprise, due to the uncertainty. I believe that my
generation has lost that surprise, that uncertainty, that joy, in
communication. When Skype calls start replacing actual encounters and emoticons
on Whatsapp replicate human emotions, something somewhere deep inside us,
starts dying.

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About Me

Intrepid Traveler, more interested in Political Economy and History than Medicine, Politically Liberal. I support historical Revisionism(rewriting Pakistan's textbooks). have written for Dawn Blogs(English and Urdu), The News, The Friday Times,The News on Sunday,The Nation, Journal of Pakistan Medical Students, Express Tribune Blogs, Pakistan Today, ViewPointOnline.net and Pak Tea House. Currently Assistant Editor at Pak Tea House. Interested in general knowledge.